by James Glaser
November 1, 2004

About the only thing you know for sure when you go to a combat zone, is the day you will be sent home. Every Soldier and Marine has that date etched in their mind and so do their families.

Sons and Daughters are thinking of that date because they know that their mom or dad will be safe then. Husbands and wives waiting back here in the states are crossing off every day as they watch that coming home date getting closer. Mothers and fathers are praying that their offspring makes it safe, until that day they will come home.

Now the Pentagon has told 6,500 U.S. Soldiers that they have a new date to wait for and this one is a lot farther away. Everyone has to reprogram their thoughts and prayers. About 3,500 soldiers of the Second Brigade from the First Cavalry and 3,000 from the First Infantry Division will have their tours extended from two and a half weeks to two months longer.

The reason things like this happen, is because the Pentagon has found that they don't have enough troops to do the job.

The Pentagon and the White House have been telling America that every thing is going fine in Iraq and Vice-president Dick Cheney has even said that Iraq is a "success." That just isn't true.

The New York Times reports about the 1544th Transportation Company of the Illinois National Guard. Relatives of the Soldiers offered to pay to weld steel plates on the unit's trucks to protect against roadside bombs before they left. The Army told them not to, because it would provide better protection in Iraq. Now seven months later these loved ones back home learn that many of those trucks still have no armor.

Karma Kumlin has a husband with the Minnesota National Guard that went to Iraq in February. She has now learned that her husband has gotten a metal shield for the gunner's turret he regularly mans and that took months of requests.

Things are going badly in Iraq for our troops and the President and the White House seem to have no idea of what is going on. They claim things are looking up and that freedom is right around the corner for the Iraqi people. Nine Marines were killed this weekend and many more wounded.

Now there is an independent estimate of over 100,000 innocent Iraqis getting killed so far in this war. Our country went totally nuts with the loss of 3,000 on 9/11. Iraq is about 1/12th the size of the USA, so there loss of a hundred thousand would have the same impact, as we losing over a million Americans. Things are not going good in Iraq and the Iraqi people are probably going nuts too. That is why it doesn't seem to be a problem to get some one to commit suicide so they can take out an American.

I know what our troops are going through and for the rest of their lives they are going to be able to "see" the dead and maimed Iraqis in their minds. They will be able to hear the screams of their fallen comrades. Thousands of American Soldiers and Marines will be forever changed and their loved ones back home will not know what to do for them.

There will be many divorces and many suicides when the troops come home. There have already been thousands of broken hearts because of this war. This extension of tours, tells us that things are not right over there, but there is an election and everything has to sound upbeat.